Kobayashi Thread

Schumacher? Villeneuve? Raikkonen, Alonso and Montoya all in the same GP? Webber? Rosberg? Hamilton? Sutil who outqualified his team-mate by a second in his first go? Hell, even Buemi got points on debut this year.

Kobayashi was an absolute joy to watch. Sure, he needs to learn the ropes, and will probably get told off for some things, but the guy drove the socks off the car, and he was very very aware of and in control of what was going on around him for a rookie - he didn't take JB off, and while JB rightly said K was driving a bit crazy - he wasn't so crazy they collided, and that was because he was driving well, though obviously not quite how he should have been in F1.

Schumacher? Villeneuve? Raikkonen, Alonso and Montoya all in the same GP? Webber? Rosberg? Hamilton? Sutil who outqualified his team-mate by a second in his first go? Hell, even Buemi got points on debut this year.

Are you really sure about MS?

Qualis were impressive, but he was able to burn his clutch in 1st lap of the race!

Q. How frustrating was it to be following Kamui Kobayashi for so long?

JB: That guy is crazy! I suppose it is just inexperience, but he moves a lot in the braking zones which makes it very difficult as Nakajima found out. Everyone else was tough but fair, he was a bit crazy and he will be put in his place a little bit more now. I had very good straightline speed, but when you have that you don't have as much downforce as other people.

He drove a great race! Much better debut then all of the new guys. Made Grosjean look like an amateur! Made Nakajima look like a Japanese GT300 mid-packer. He made some mistakes, drove hard, but kept it on the track. His move on Nakajima wasn't cool when he came out of the pits, but the race winner did a move like that as well. He qualified extremely well and his first stint in the race was 10 out of 10! The fact that Button wasn't able to pass him straight away like he did on some of the other drivers speaks volume on his ability. He needs to be in a seat next season, and hopefully with Toyota in 2010.

Button can be a loser even when winning a title.
Koba played him hard but fair. it's a men's sport, not a ladies walk in the park.
The move on Naka was not so good, true, but it was not worse than Marks....and it was not in the braking zone.
but i guess jenson's ego can't take the fact he was held by a complete rookie for so long.

btw, I loved koba's move on the outside of T1...does anybody have a replay of that? (PM if you don't want to share the link in public)

I like this kid, he can actually race (which is more than can be said for Grosjean ). He gave the 2009 WDC a real run for his money, and Button had to make a big move to outbrake him.. Impressive stuff from Kamui

His move on Nakajima was a bit silly but he'll learn as he gets more experience.

Really hope he gets a drive for 2010. Wouldn't mind seeing some more of him in 2009, though, either (but not at the expense of Glock)

Don't worry guys. Kobayashi won't be in F1 for long. Typical japanese kamikaze with no clue how to race intelligently. His move on the struggling Fisichella was good, but nothing else impressed me.

It became a trend now that japanese drivers do something spectacular in their first races. Naka had 5th best fastest lap in his first F1 race, and had his best result in the second. Since then, nothing.

Kobayashi did move his car too much like Marin has said during the BBC live. Kobayashi is a fighter driver thatis OK, but he is asking for accidents, fatal accidents. I actually DO NOT think there is a driver whose life is less than Kobayashi's behavior.

I think you'll find that at that point, Button hadn't seen the incident, just been told about the coming-together. Maybe unwise to finger the guy on that basis, but he'd seen a lot of his weaving from close quarters - and IMHO dealt with it pretty well. He sounded fed up, rather than angry, on the in-car when he eventually complained of the blocking. Sort of 'hey, enough is enough'. Pretty mild considering just how much faster Button's pace actually was. And the "crazy!" comment that I heard on the BBC seemed to be said with a bit of surprised admiration rather than rancour.

I thought it was a very impressive debut. Before the race he was talking about learning Interlagos from video games - I thought it odd that he didn't mention a simulator. First F1 race and at an unknown track, wet practice ... very impressive

How come no-one has compared him to Irvine? Seems to me like the obvious comparator for now.

if they give him a chance in 2010 and if he learns the ropes quickly, i can say we are looking the future WDC contestant. I like his aggressive style and his confidence and i believe that in 2010 he can show us his potential in Toyota and keep Toyota in F1 for some longer period of time.

awsome debut ...he got my attention specially after dividing the T1/T2 with button in the move button passed on T1, went long and Koba got it back for T2 ...some balls to do that on your first F1 race ever knowing you could put out the WDC chances of the other driver.

Excellent drive for a rookie
look at other Noobs on track pritty pathetic
but this guy is really good, and raced very well
Button was whining simply....i didnot see him moving in braking zone
Kobayachi FTW

the Naka incident, it was hard blocking from Koba, same as Weber....and it could be fault of Naka aswell....as he should have given up the inside line and should have taken the outside and nailed him through the next corners

Yeah right: Nakajima was only one place behind Kobayashi and trying to overtake him. People should have a closer look at Nakajima's speed before bashing on him. True he was slower than Rosberg but that's no shame, true he didn't score points this year but he did have a lot of bad luck and last year he often matched and beat Rosberg. This year he only beat him twice in qualy but his speed was not so bad. Nakajima did a better job as Piquet and if you look at grid positions, Kazuki was most of the time around place 11 or 12 on the grid and even 5th in Silverstone, he was never on the back, that's not bad at all. The speed & talent is there for sure.

Still I must say Kobayashi impressed me a lot too, he was very exciting to watch and the entertainment he gave us is just what F1 needs.

One note on Kobayashi - at this point the jury is still out (we only had one race ffs) but to me initially this guy seems closer to the 'dangerous' than brilliant
on the brilliant to dangerous driver scale.....

One note on Kobayashi - at this point the jury is still out (we only had one race ffs) but to me initially this guy seems closer to the 'dangerous' than brilliant on the brilliant to dangerous driver scale.....

At least in Brazil he was on the upper end of the boring to exciting driver scale though.

Don't worry guys. Kobayashi won't be in F1 for long. Typical japanese kamikaze with no clue how to race intelligently. His move on the struggling Fisichella was good, but nothing else impressed me.

It became a trend now that japanese drivers do something spectacular in their first races. Naka had 5th best fastest lap in his first F1 race, and had his best result in the second. Since then, nothing.

Or Takagi taking 13th spot on the grid at his debut, and with a Tyrrell... Let's be prudent. Kobayashi still has a lot to prove.

Jenson Button did the give-up-the-inside-then-retake-outside trick to I-don't-know-who in Senna's esse and the commentators were all 'ohh, see, that's experience'... When Koba did the same a few laps later, it was reckless dangerous driving according to... Jense? -- For all I could see he didn't so much weave as he did go for the inside and straightened up when he saw Jenson coming fast. You could call that 'changing direction' if you will.

...or was Jenson speaking of another attempt? We got a commercial break and when the show came back on it was already a done thing.

(As for the Nakajima hit, well that certainly was not a great move but it wasn't senna-prost, schu-villo or such kind of not-great-move...)